A 'Call of Duty' movie will probably never happen

There are some people who still believe in the mad dream of a not-terrible videogame movie. Ubisoft is currently in the process of adapting three of its properties for the big screen. (Lest you doubt them, they’ve already signed Michael Fassbender and Tom Hardy; if they hire somebody named Hemsworth to star in Ghost Recon, they’ll have a Yahtzee!) However, there’s at least one major videogame overlord who couldn’t care less about turning his fabulously successful franchise into a movie. Buried in an intriguing New York Times profile of Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is this intriguing little throwaway line about the Call of Duty franchise:

Call of Duty may look like a movie, but Mr. Kotick has little interest in turning it into one — and has turned down several studios’ requests. He says movies based on video games rarely please devoted fans and could taint the brand.

Considering that the most recent Call of Dutygrossed $1 billion in a fortnight, and considering that the franchise has spent the last half-decade essentially colonizing November, it’s probably understandable that Kotick isn’t interested in a Call of Duty movie. (Activision did not respond to a request for comment, possibly because they are too busy taking caviar baths.) Also, to be fair, a straight adaptation of the last few Call of Duty games would basically be Red Dawn mashed with Terminator Salvation, except with communist zombies.